Exclusive Interview: Dominicide talk “The Architecture Of Oppression”!

After single “The Empowered” dropped in mid July, the wait for the highly anticipated sophomore EP from retooled Glasgow Scotland Death infused Speed Thrash outfit Dominicide is finally over with original guitarist Craig Law the last man standing from the line up that brought us a self titled debut in 2017. Granted an audience with the man who rebuilt the band from the ground up, here’s the first of two exclusive interviews…

“The Architecture Of Oppression” is something of a rebirth for Dominicide, a rebuilding of the band from the ground up around a single original member; so what was behind the decision to keep the original band name and not wipe the slate clean and start over with a new name? How did you go about choosing the new recruits? “Yep, it’s been some transformation! It was tempting to wipe the slate totally clean with a name change, but we decided to keep the name Dominicide because it is what we still stand for. This band is my baby and despite our many incarnations, I’ve carried our rage, our message, and love for metal music through to this day. Our new recruits, Louis Chesters (vox & guitar) and Oskar Mazurek (drums) were drafted from Satiracy – a tech/death band we had shared the stage with in the Glasgow metal scene. They enrich the band so much with their insane talent and writing skills. Our other new recruit, Liam McCafferty (bass guitar) is one of my best friends and with his meticulous choice of his parts and fantastic playing ability, he acts as the glue that brings our sound together. The band has been my baby that I’ve carried for so many years, but this line-up has truly embraced it as their own and being in a band has never been so fun”

You followed the same path that Josh Middleton took in Sylosis in moving from guitars to guitars and vocals; how did the decision to move roles come about and how challenging have you found it to perform both aspects at the same time? Had you always fancied yourself as a vocalist or was it something that came about out of necessity? “The decision to move into vocals was originally suggested to me by Louis, who also does vocals and guitar in his other band, Satiracy. I was originally skeptical of the idea as I had only done basic backing vocals live before, and my playing/singing coordination was not up to the technical standard required for what would become ‘The Architecture of Oppression’ EP. The decision was also based on previous experiences of auditioning vocalists which I found laborious and unfruitful, so I decided I would give it a shot despite it being a daunting proposition! It’s funny you should mention Sylosis and Josh Middleton as I shaped my pitched scream vocals around both Josh and Jamie Graham’s vocal style!”

Can fans expect to hear cuts from the 2017 self-titled EP when you return to the stage or do you plan to go with all new material in your set lists? “We’ll have the best tracks from our self-titled album live but this time they will sound A LOT better with the new line-up”

Lyrically the new EP has a few themes running through it with things like standing up and being counted, taking control or ownership of a situation and empowering yourself. How much of the lyrical content is about rebuilding the band and how much is it about more general topics? Did the new members of the band have any input into the lyrics? “The lyrical content doesn’t chronicle the re-building of the band as such, but deals more with what I see in the modern world and my experiences in it, focussing on the various forms/types of oppression I see in today’s world. In these songs I go on an exploration of a topic when writing and learn a lot by the end. For example, the song with the theme you speak of, ‘The Empowered’ was originally just intended to be our ‘Caught In A Mosh’ or ‘Thrasher’ in which I talk about the adrenaline rush, empowerment that metal instills in me at live shows, then I rewrote to give it political relevance inspired by the various protests in 2020, then I rewrote again to deal with the personal side of empowerment to me as someone who hates conflict and has had to adapt to not be a pushover in today’s world. That’s just one track, but it’s the same process for every song on the EP. The lyrics, melodies etc were penned by myself out of convenience with our studio time fast approaching, but I’m sure we’ll get Louis in on the action in our next record!”

As a Death Metal infused Speed Thrash outfit we’ve picked out moments of Trivium and Pestilence as being along similar lines but who would you say your main influences are and why? If you had the opportunity to record a cover for someone like Decibel or Terrorizer magazine, who would you fancy paying tribute to? “The main influences that permeate most of the band’s current musical influences are bands like Obscura, Decapitated, Fit For An Autopsy, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder, and Sylosis. They just have that ability to write what they want and it inevitably rules. Each band combines various heavy sub-genres to create a formidable sound and that’s what we like to do because it’s fun! If we were to record a cover, it would probably be something from Sylosis’ ‘Edge of the Earth’ or ‘Conclusion Of An Age’ albums!”

Given the breakneck speed of the performances on the EP, are the live shows something of a whiteknuckle ride or is the combination of rehearsals and perhaps a click track the answer to avoiding sounding like a train wreck live? What goes in behind the scenes to make those shows sound smooth? Do you have any pre-show rituals? “We’ll be performing with backing tracks to a click for sure! Not only is it great for anchoring your tempos and keeping the performance clean, it’ll allow us to add our new orchestral sounds, extra guitars, and sub drops to provide a great listening experience! We’re currently going through pre-production for our EP launch on Sat 25th Sep, 2021 at Nice N Sleazys, Glasgow and it is audacious but also very exciting in prospect”

“The Architecture Of Oppression” by Dominicide is out now and available over at bandcamp